Chapter 70 : Get Over Here And Fix It!
Joe shrugged, as if it were nothing. “He just endures it.”
Allison turned to look at Jareth. Then why had he acted like changing the gauze earlier was unbearable?
A sudden chill ran down Joe’s spine. He saw Jareth’s cold stare and immediately clamped his mouth shut.
Did I say something wrong?
Jareth snapped at him, “What are you standing there for? You were the one who changed my dressing. Get over here and fix it!”
“…Alright.” Joe hurried over and took Allison’s place.
With nothing else to do, Allison walked to the window and looked outside.
It was still early morning, but the streets were already busy.
This was the third day I had gone completely missing, and no one from the Rogers family had come to look for me.
Allison thought to herself, if it were not for Jareth, I would still be locked up in that warehouse, suffering.
“Mr. Taylor, Ronan’s leg is fractured. They’ve already given him anesthesia three times. It still hurts so badly he can’t sleep,” Joe said casually as he worked.
Allison’s ears twitched. She could not help wondering what had happened while she was being captured.
In another hospital room, Ronan lay in bed with his face drained of color from the pain.
Sherrie hovered by his bedside, rushing back and forth in distress. “Ronan, have some water. It will help with the pain.”
Then she offered him some grapes. “Ronan, eat a grape. It will make you feel better.”
Ronan was losing his mind. He had never realized just how talkative Sherrie could be.
This wasn't some mild cold or fever. My bone was shattered. It hurt like hell.
He swallowed his frustration and said patiently, “Sherrie, I’m in too much pain to eat or drink. Just get me another painkiller.”
I had been pampered my whole life, raised with four or five nannies hovering around me from the moment I could walk. I had never even scraped a knee before. How could I handle something like this?
Sherrie’s eyes were red as she answered tearfully, “You already took too many. The doctor said you can’t have any more.”
Ronan became irritated. “But I’m in serious pain!”
Sherrie hesitated for a moment. Ronan thought she was finally softening, ready to bring him the medicine. He felt relieved.
But instead, Sherrie leaned down and gently kissed his lips, then smiled sweetly. “A kiss will make it better.”
“....”
Ronan’s expression twisted, like he’d swallowed a fly. He felt numb, yet the urge to scream clawed at his chest.
Sherrie looked at him in confusion. Usually, whenever he got sick and I kissed him, he would be all smiles.
Ronan forced himself to stay calm. “Sherrie, you study medicine. Can’t you think of something else for the pain?”
“Something else…” Sherrie frowned, thinking hard. “But this is how they treat everyone. We all go through the same thing…”
“That’s not true. Ally—” Ronan started to argue, but Luke entered the room before he could finish.
His father’s face was stern. Seeing Ronan in such a pathetic state only made him angrier. “Endure it. Crying over a small fracture, how do you expect to accomplish anything?”
Ronan’s face flushed bright red. Ashamed into silence, he clenched his jaw and said nothing.
Sherrie hadn’t seen Luke often.
The moment he entered, she hurried to ingratiate herself. “Dad, Ronan’s really strong. Please don’t be angry with him…”
Luke cut her off with a cold glare. “Who told you to be here? Get out!”
“Huh?” Sherrie was startled by Luke’s yells. Hadn’t the Lopez family already proposed to me? Why was the future daughter-in-law being told to leave?
She had no idea what she’d done wrong. Instinctively, she turned to Ronan for help.
But to Sherrie’s surprise, Ronan avoided her eyes and didn’t say a word to defend her.
Luke had never liked her family background in the first place. And now she was deliberately calling him Dad. Was she looking for trouble?
When she realized that even Ronan wouldn’t stand up for her, Sherrie wiped away her tears and rushed out of the hospital room, looking completely wronged.
Luke watched her leave with a clear contempt in his eyes. He then turned back to his disappointing son and said coldly. “If you’re only fooling around with her, so be it. But if you’re serious, don’t blame me for cutting off all father-son ties.”
Ronan stared at him in shock. Cut ties? How?
Luke sneered. “I’m still young. I can have another son.”
Ronan’s face went pale.
Luke went on. “If you still want to stay in your grandfather’s good graces, then go and bring the Lopez family a real ally.”
Ronan knew his father had always looked down on Sherrie’s humble background, but he still said, “I can’t betray Sherrie.”
At that, Luke’s eyes sharpened.
He grabbed Ronan by the collar and growled, “Your grandfather has already arranged for Jareth to marry Allison. That’s our only chance to catch up to them. And what will marrying Sherrie get you, other than a bunch of freeloading relatives?”
Then he pressed down hard on Ronan’s injured leg.
Ronan cried out in pain. Luke showed no mercy at all. “If you don’t get your act together, the pain will only get worse.”
Veins bulged on Ronan’s forehead from the agony. He didn’t even have the strength to argue back.
After leaving the room, Luke gave an order to the bodyguards outside. “No more painkillers for him.”
“Yes, sir!” the bodyguards replied in unison.
Inside the room, Ronan lay slumped on the bed, drenched in cold sweat. Maybe the pain had numbed him, or maybe he was drifting in and out of consciousness, but his thoughts began to wander.
Who had Father said Jareth was going to marry?
The pain was so overwhelming that he hadn’t even heard the name clearly.
Clutching his injured leg, Ronan gritted his teeth. Luke was really ruthless. The wound had started bleeding again.
Frustrated and furious, he called for a doctor for Sherrie, but no one came.
Luke clearly meant to wear him down.
After half an hour of shouting, Ronan finally gave up and slumped against the headboard.
The pain kept him from sleeping, and his thoughts drifted again, to Sherrie and to Allison.
Sherrie had said injuries only needed to be endured, but that wasn’t true.